from Jon Miller, Associate Professor of English, The University of Akron, Ohio, USA.

The Advocate of Moral Reform for July 16, 1838

"Moral Reform" was an antebellum movement that consisted of societies, mainly female, devoted to (a) curbing the violent sexual passions and (b) generally reducing the amount of extramarital sex in America. The movement might be understood as a part of the broader temperance movement; the moral reform movement, as represented here, at least, also sought the restraint of passion and the cultivation of reason and religious feeling. As you will see if you "continue reading," Kathlene Verib copied the entire contents of a single issue of The Advocate of Moral Reform. This number features the following catalog of vice and crime: slovenly dress, premarital sex, sex with prostitutes, the premature sexualization of children, adultery, attempted rape, and the neglect of one's duty to promote and support Female Moral Reform societies.

Here is Kathlene Verib's edition of this number, with a brief introduction and a bibliography, in both PDF and (for searching purposes) plain ASCII format. Enjoy.

First, the elegant PDF version: Download MAL11AdvMoralReform18380716.pdf (193.6K)
Verib's edition has been formatted into a compact format designed for
photocopying and distribution in courses. Now follows the full text of
that file, offered only for search purposes; to read this document, please download and view the PDF version at the above link.

I am also filing this
under American Women Poets because of the strong presence of Lydia
Sigourney. Note all the material signed L.H.S. is likely hers.

The Advocate of Moral Reform 4.14 (July 16, 1838)

Kathlene Verib, Thoreau, Emerson & Their Circle, The University of Akron, Spring 2006

Introduction

In 1848, The New York Female Moral Reform Society purchased a reform publication targeted at women, McDowall’s Journal, and renamed it The Advocate of Moral Reform, as Bertha-Monica Stearns writes in an article that appeared in The American Historical Review (683). It became one of many reform periodicals of the mid-nineteenth century. With its original motto, “For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid that shall not be made known,” the Advocate sought to destroy licentiousness and vice by revealing the truth of such evils (683). Sarah Towne Smith (later Martyn) acted as the editor of the Advocate from 1836 to 1845. She was replaced by S.R.I. Bennett in 1846, who changed the name of the paper to Advocate of Moral Reform and Family Guardian (683).The paper dealt with many different forms of vice, but this number mainly deals with the duties of a wife and the importance of reform groups. Most of the issue is devoted to praising those who fight for reform, condemning those who are licentious, and condemning those who did not take an active role in the group’s goal of removing vice from society. The Female Moral Reform Society used the Advocate to acquire new members and to convince existing members that their work was essential and noble.The focus of the Advocate is simultaneously feminist (seeking the equality of men and women) and conservative. As Mary Ryan examines in an article that appeared in Feminist Studies, the Female Moral Reform Society sought both “to attack the double standard, on the one hand, and to celebrate a domestic feminine stereotype, on the other” (67). This particular issue of the Advocate exemplifies these two goals. One story, “The Slovenly Wife,” gives advice on how to be a good wife. Other articles, such as one about a man named E.A. Kittredge, expose licentious men and ask for the equal punishment of male and female sinners.The members of the Female Moral Reform Society fought more for women’s equality than they may have been aware. The paper did not help in the fight for woman’s suffrage. At one point, it even promised readers that it would not publish any articles dealing with this issue. The group did believe, however, that the men and women should face equal chastisement for licentious behavior. During this time, an unwed mother was ousted from respectable society, while the man responsible for her state was free to continue on with his life. An article in this number, “Extracts from a Lecture on the Subject of Moral Reform,” asks “who has made this distinction” between men who seduce and women who succumb to seduction (106). “‘The soul that sinneth, it shall die;’ whether it be of male or female” (106), the article states, asking for equality between the sexes. The article goes on to argue that if licentious men were exposed and scorned as much as unwed mothers were, “fifty years would give us a purer moral atmosphere than this world has ever before enjoyed” (107). The egalitarian nature of the viewpoint expressed in this article complicates the general conservatism of the Female Moral Reform Society.“The Slovenly Wife” claims to be a true story, with all the last names censored to protect the identities of the characters. The story focuses on Hester, a young, recently married woman. She has cast aside her “love for showy dress” and relaxes into a “habitual carelessness,” believing dressing up is no longer necessary now that she is married (105). Her sloppiness leads to the eventual ruin of her husband’s business and leads him to drink. “The Slovenly Wife” is clearly a cautionary tale, meant to warn young women against becoming too comfortable in marriage. The Female Moral Reform Society gave this topic as much, if not more, weight in this issue of the Advocate. This article shows the paper’s inclination to illuminate the feminine domestic obligations.Like all women’s organizations of the Nineteenth Century, the New York Female Moral Reform Society was made up of mostly married women. According to Anne Boylan, in her article, “Timid Girls, Venerable Widows, and Dignified Matrons: Life Cycle Patterns Among Organized Women in New York and Boston, 1797-1840,” almost 90% of the group’s members from 1834-1840 were married (787). Perhaps because of this homogeneity, the group promoted an egalitarianism of women more than many other similar groups, by explicitly arguing that all women—young, old, married, and single,—had an obligation to amend moral wrongs in society. Other groups, and the benevolent groups, in particular, felt that older, married women were the appropriate group to battle immorality (Boylan 781).Boylan writes that women’s groups during this time period focused on one of three topics: benevolence, reform, or feminism (779). The reform movement began in the 1830s, while the feminist groups, who sought equal rights for women, did not start to appear until the 1840s. In its first issue, the Advocate promised to “be full in its exposure of vice,” while remaining “sufficiently delicate and chaste in character” (Stearns 683). Maintaining a reputation as a lady-like organization was important to the publishers of the Advocate throughout the paper’s existence. In fact, as women’s suffrage became a more prevalent issue, the editors stated that the Advocate would not publish anything concerning the “unpleasant topic of the Rights of Women” (Stearns 684). The Advocate was most concerned with ending the licentiousness that the Female Moral Reform Society perceived as so corrupting their culture.

A Note on the Text

The following is a reproduction of volume 4, number 14 of The Advocate of Moral Reform in its entirety. The grammar and spelling were kept the same as they appeared in 1838. This number includes pages 105 through 112. Three minor and obvious typographical errors were corrected. A comma in “Thoughts on Miss Grimke’s . . .” was changed to a period: “merged in those of the other, God has decided” read the original. In “Fatal Neutrality,” “drave” was changed to “drove.” In “Appeal to Females,” a quotation was closed; the original read: “rivers of waters are turned? If so . . . .” The inconsistent puncutation of abbreviations in the “Acknowledgements” has been preserved. There, for example, N.P. Willis’s first wife (not Cornelia Grinnell Willis) appears as “Mrs N. P Willis.”

THE ADVOCATE OF MORAL REFORM.Vol. IV. No. 14.NEW-YORK, JULY 16, 1838.Whole No. 74.Published by the New-York Female Moral Reform Society,Blessed are the pure in heart,for they shall see God.—Matt. v. 8.A semi-monthly Periodical,$1 per annum in advance.

GEORGE CRAGIN,publishing agent.Office No. 149 Nassau Street, in the basement.——TERMS: The Advocate of Moral Reform will be furnished to single subscribers for $1,00 per annum, in advance.Any person sending us $5,00 postage paid, shall receive seven copies sent to one person.Auxiliary societies, and persons wishing to distribute, and taking not less than twenty five copies, shall receive them at fifty cents a copy, per annum, enclosed in one wrapper and sent to one person.All the profits of the paper, together with the donations entrusted to our charge, will be faithfully expended in Missionary and other labors to promote the cause of Moral Reform.The Advocate is, as it professes to be, EXCLUSIVELY under the direction of the Female Moral Reform Society: it is edited entirely by a lady, whose whole time is devoted to the work, under the control and supervision of a publishing committee, composed from the Board of Managers of the Society.Communications may be addressed toGEORGE CRAGIN, Office Agent.

Fom the Schenectady Reflector.Schenectady, April 4, 1838Mr. Editor,—Sir: A short paragraph in last week’s Democrat, headed, I think, to lovers, recalled to my memory a painful circumstance well known to me. Should you deem it, sir, worth a place in your paper, the recital may serve as a warning to some of my own sex, too many of whom, I fear, unthinkingly prepare for themselves as bitter a cup as the subject of this unvarnished tale.—The Slovenly Wife.Hester S**** was the youngest daughter of a respectable mechanic. Her beauty was proverbial; her natural abilities were certainly above the common order, and though not favored with a liberal education, her company was sought after as pleasing and instructive, by her young acquaintances. Too ardent a love for showy dress, in preference to neatness, seemed her only fault. Her beauty and pleasing manners naturally gained her many admirers, bur the accepted one was a Mr. T****, who had loved her from his boyhood. At the expiration of his apprenticeship he solicited and obtained the consent of her friends to their union. They were married, and the following week the envied husband bore off his beauteous prize, joyful in the anticipation of future happiness, to a distant town more favorable for commencing his business. He hoped to see his Hester relinquish her extravagant fondness for dress, now that she had become a wife, and was removed from her gay acquaintance. Before marriage he had only visited her at stated times, when she was always prepared to receive him, and consequently, as he had never seen her in dishabille, he was a stranger to her slovenly propensities. But scarce were they settled in their new abode ere she gradually threw off the restraint she had imposed upon herself, and portrayed a negligence that pained his mind severely. If she was going out, or expected company, she dressed as gay as ever, but, when at home and alone, her appearance was always slovenly. Why is it (he mentally exclaimed,) that she is only anxious for the admiration of others? Is it possible that I have become indifferent to her? She is as kind to me as ever; perhaps ‘tis only thoughtlessness. He loved her too well to wound her feelings, and tried to overlook her faults, but, fearing that strangers would remark it, he sometimes ventured so far as to inquire, “Have you forgot, me dear, that you have not changed your dress to-day?” or some such mild expression, which served well for the present time, but was soon forgotten. He finally asked her in the kindest terms, “why she was so inattentive to her appearance.” She playfully answered, “I have not got my fortune to make; but I will dress more, William, if you wish it; perhaps you will think me extravagant.” “A woman,” he replied, “can be neatly dressed, while employed in her domestic concerns, without extravagance. Only let your appearance be what your own good sense dictates as proper, and you will never be so uncomfortably surprised as you frequently have been by the unexpected entrance of strangers. Dress less abroad and more at home, and your happiness and my own will remain undisturbed.”This rebuke had a good effect, but only for a short time, for she again relaxed into her habitual carelessness. About six months after marriage they were surprised by an unexpected visit from her elder sister, who was struck dumb with astonishment, as she entered the room, at the embarrassment in the countenance of her brother-in-law, and the neglected appearance of his wife. She was dressed in a dirty though fashionable frock, her hair partially papered, and her whole appearance gave evidence of extreme negligence. “Are you not well, Hester?” inquired her sister, as soon as her surprise allowed her utterance, “or are you unhappy? Something is certainly wrong; else why this change?” “Oh no, sister,” she replied, “I am neither ill nor unhappy; and why so much surprise at my appearance? I have no occasion to trouble myself about dress and such things now; you know my fortune is made.” Mrs. H. replied, with emotion, “Pardon me, sister, if I doubt your assertion. Your lot is now a happy one, but much depends on your own exertions to insure its continuance. Your fortune is indeed made, so far as a comfortable home and a rich supply of all the necessaries and comforts of life can make it, but can wealth secure to you that undivided tender affection you now enjoy? No, believe me, a wife’s assiduous endeavors to please her husband is the only way to insure an interest in his affections. What can yield such a rich reward for our labors as a husbands; approving smile? Only ask yourself if you are not best satisfied when your mirror reflects your appearance as neat and becoming? Your husband’s attention to his own person gives evidence that he is not indifferent in this matter. How must your neat or slovenly appearance, then, please or disgust him? Reflect and look forward to the time of evils that may arise from what now appears of so trifling import. Don’t be angry, Hester; you are young, and see not the difficulties which await you. It is my desire that you may profit by the experience of others rather than purchase your own too dear. Trust not too much to beauty. Sickness or accident may injure, if not destroy it. Begin, then, to insure that which will be invaluable when beauty is faded. Let me beseech you to throw off this indifference and negligence, before you disgust and trifle away the affections of one of the best of husbands; for be assured, however slow its progress, it will inevitably end in misery. Ingratitude is sure to bring its own reward. I am grieved to make my visit so unwelcome; I anticipated much pleasure, but that embarrassment and disappointment so strongly depicted upon your husband’s countenance, in place of the smile he used to wear, has damped my expected pleasure.” The young wife made some inarticulate reply, and proceeded to prepare for dinner, which she served up with her usual taste.During the sister’s stay every thing wore a brighter aspect, and the fond husband yet hoped to realize his joyful anticipations.—But, alas! transient were his hopes; for a few days after the sister’s departure she again sunk into her former habits, regarding her advice as only the effect of conceited notions. One evening, while she was engaged reading a play her husband unavoidably introduced two old acquaintances. She was, as usual, quite unprepared, and she had the mortification to overhear, from them, some unpleasant remarks. Unfortunately these remarks were heard by her partner also, which induced him to invite his friends to accompany him to the opposite tavern. As this was his first tavern visit, it added to her provocation, and she upbraided him, upon his return, for bringing such company home, repeating what she had overheard. He coldly answered, “Hester, my friends spoke the truth. The blame devolves on you. If you would but study to please your husband, you would be always prepared to receive his friends: but I promise not to trouble you again: I will neither expose you nor myself, nor can I any longer consider I have a home. Hope and happiness are fled. I have striven to deserve better treatment, but I am disappointed!” A few angry words followed, and a sullen, sleepless night, brought a day ever to be remembered by the now unhappy Hester! Her pride was wounded, and she sought a remedy; but in vain. The die was cast. While at the tavern Mr. T. was invited to attend a convivial party to be given the next day. He was undecided whether to accept the invitation or remain at home, when his wife walked hastily through the shop without either a look or word for him. After watching her till out of sight, overwhelmed with disappointment and despair, he snatched his hat from the counter, and joined the party at the tavern. From that day his flourishing business and his handsome wife became more and more neglected. She now saw her error in disdaining her sister’s timely advice, with the bitter reflection that she had fallen from the precipice she was warned of. She bore all in silent grief, suffering under the full weight of her sister’s prediction that her fortune was not then made. Creditors now visited in lieu of customers. The goods were sold; the shop was soon closed. The husband had become a drunkard, and the once beloved and yet beautiful wife, sinking under the combined effects of poverty, and shame, and remorse, found out too late that she was the unhappy cause of their mutual wretchedness and ruin. Thus ends a true but humble tale, told byA Wife.

For the Advocate of Moral Reform.Extracts from a Lecture on theSubject of Moral Reform.* * * * * It is not my design to spread before you disgusting details of licentiousness—“things of which it is a shame even to speak:”—neither do I design to point out means of reformation for the licentious; as I know of no other means than those laid down in the gospel—repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. My principal object is to show how this disgusting tide of pollution which is now sweeping over the land, may be stayed, by the preservation of the now virtuous from its contaminating influence; and also to answer some popular objections against the Moral Reform efforts of the present day.The first and most important step in the work of moral reform, is, to effect a change in public opinion in reference to the comparative guilt of the parties in this criminal transaction. Heretofore the erring female has been visited with all the odium which a virtuous community usually heaps upon the vilest offenders; while the licentious man has been practically smiled upon as though he were innocent of every crime. If it were a literal fact that woman was the sole enticer to this sin, and man the unwilling victim of her wiles, public opinion could hardly be different in the treatment of the parties from what it now is. The perverse maxim seems to have obtained almost universal credence, that licentiousness in man is but a venial offence; while in woman it is a sin of the blackest dye—corrupting her whole soul, and utterly unfitting her for decent society. I do not deny the latter position; I only hold that the influence of this base sin is just as degrading, just as demoralising in men as it is in women; that it has the same tendency to harden the heart, to blunt and destroy the sensibilities of our nature, and render its victims unfit for virtuous society, without distinction of sex,—“as in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man,”—and the influence of sin upon the human mind is alike at all times and under all circumstances. To say therefore, even practically, that woman is contaminated and utterly destroyed by a transgression of the seventh command, while man thus transgresses with comparative impunity, is a libel upon the law, and even upon the whole word of God. The law knows no distinction here—the providence of God knows none, and the retributions of eternity will know of none, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die;” whether it be male or female.

Who Has Made This Distinction?

This distinction in regard to crime has been invented by base men themselves, in order to cover up their own deformity;—while they have heaped upon the victims of their baseness a large measure of that odium which justly belonged to themselves. And virtuous women, in thousands of instances, have adopted their perverse maxims, that unchaste women, only, are infamous, for hardly a better purpose. Said one of this class, “I always did detest licentious females: but, what shall we do in regard to licentious young men? If we exclude them from society, we shall probably have but few to wait upon us.” Now what is this but adopting a wicked maxim for a selfish purpose? “Why did you refuse the arm of my brother last evening?” said a respectable young female to her friend. “Because I understand he is licentious,” was the reply. “Pshaw!” said the former—“if you refuse young men on that account, you will not have many to wait upon you, I can assure you.” “Very well,” was the noble reply, “then I will do without their attention.”

Object of Moral Reform Societies.

The object of the Moral Reform Society is not so much to reclaim the vicious as it is to preserve the virtuous from the paths of the destroyer. We know that in the application of gospel truth, grace can reclaim the wanderers of either sex; and we therefore labor to bring such under the sound of the Gospel. But our distinctive labor in this connection, is to arouse public attention to the deadly influence of this sin, and thus save the rising generation from the paths of the destroyer. As in the temperance reformation, total abstinence from all that can intoxicate, is the only ground of safety for the temperate;—so in the reformation of public morals, an entire separation from the vicious, is the only ground of safety for the virtuous. According to the past ratio of the increase of impurity in our country, in a few years, tens of thousands of now virtuous youth of both sexes, will be numbered with the unclean. And from what ranks will this army of vile ones come? Certainly not from those who take, and consistently maintain, the high and holy ground of this society. It will be from those who stand aloof from, and frown upon our efforts. The one class from those females who smile upon the libertine, and permit him to whisper a tale of love in her ear; and who join with him in denouncing all efforts at Moral Reform. Such may flatter themselves that they shall not fall, and possibly, through the restraining grace of God, some will not. And so may one walk upon the glaciers of Alpine mountains and not fall;—but safety is only with those who tread the plains below. Thousands of females, with sensibilities as keen, and purposes as firm, and virtue as untarnished, as any now on earth, have fallen, for they smiled upon and caressed a villain; and thousands more will fall, for they throw themselves into the very arms of temptation, by their daily intercourse with villains. Oh! that such would but consider the eternal truth, that those who are not afraid of temptation, very soon are not afraid of sin.

Popular Objections Considered.

But I must hasten to a notice of some popular objection against the Moral Reform efforts of the present day. It is said by many of the virtuous, and by all the vicious, that licentiousness is an evil not to be spoken of in public, nor suppressed by direct public effort. In answer to this objection an eloquent writer* says;—“We may contemplate this vice in pictures, in books, in caricatures, as drawn by the moralist, the satirist and the artist; we may see innocence seduced and ruined; and the villain walking the streets and receiving the courtesies of the virtuous;—we may know that haunts of crime are standing by day and by night under the shades of our church steeples;—we may see our sons and daughters entering them never to return;—and in secret spend the residue of our life and finally sink in sorrow to our graves; we may see that cloud of wrath gathering over our land, which overthrew Sodom, the nations of Canaan, Babylon, and Nineveh;—we may hear the dark waters rumbling beneath our feet, and breaking up the foundations of personal, domestic, and civil happiness; in short, we may see the monster invade the sanctuary of the church, and plant his foot upon the very altar of God:—but we must say nothing—we must do nothing,—the habits of society, the claims of modesty demand silence—forbid action. Our lips are hermetically sealed, while the heart is bursting with anguish! The principle is absurd and cruel,—unnatural, irrational and anti-christian;—true virtue spurns its aid. Unaffected, native, heaven-born delicacy contemns the simpering smiles of the serpent, who, under the pretence of great for virtue’s cause, allows the young and beautiful of our land to rush in untold numbers, unheeded and unwarned, down to the bottomless pit.”O when will Christians cease to aid on, by a mistaken a pernicious policy, this work of moral death? Throughout the extent of our land we see this sin increasing at a fearful rate, and threatening soon to become not merely a deed of darkness; and if we attempt to arouse public attention to its enormities and its dangers, we are rebuked for our indelicacy! Is it so indeed, that when an evil like this is known to be preying upon the health, and peace, and morals of society, it is an offence against modesty and delicacy to labor for its removal? Must we be silent here in the very face of the word and providence of God, lest we shall offend the fastidiousness of some moral sensitive plant? Who shall be esteemed indelicate? The perpetuator of this sin or his exposer? “Are they, who, with expansive benevolence, would rescue the ensnared, and brand with infamy the ensnarer, to be denounced as indelicate? or shall this denunciation fall on the wretch who decoys the innocent into his lair, and holds her by his wiles? who, regardless of a father’s cry and a mother’s tears, lies in wait to shed blood? Let the charge of indelicacy be brought against the panders of the abandoned, not against those who seek the prevention and extinction of lewdness.”Some professedly good people stand aloof from, or oppose this work because it is not popular. But what work of moral reformation ever was at first popular in this revolted world? Christianity was not at first popular. The Reformation in Luther’s day was not popular. The Temperance cause, ten years ago, was proscribed as an effort which none but ultraists and radicals would advocate; and it was not until it began to gain the ascendant in the moral world, that your prudent, time-serving professors got down from the fence and swung their hats in its favor. And when the cause of Moral Reform shall begin to triumph over all opposition, your prudent men, who seldom ask—what is right? but only—what is popular? will join us with as much zeal and confidence, as though they had ever been the friends of every good word and work. I need not here waste time in showing that the Christian’s duty is to inquire for the right, and not for the popularity of a cause: and having learnt that, to labor to render it popular. Any thing short of this is apostacy from God and treason against man.Some persons condemn the co-operation of ladies in the work of Moral Reform; and declare it utterly unsuitable for them, as being destructive of female sensibility and delicacy. But without such co-operation, men would labor in this cause in vain. Unless females arise in vindication of their rights and happiness, and expel the libertine from their society, nothing can be done. A lady, pre-eminently respected for the elevation and purity of her character, said to me some years since, “Mr. —, why do not the young men here organize a society for the suppression of vice, and expel such fellows as H. from respectable company?” This H. was a graduate from Y. C. and was then in a distinguished law office, getting his profession. But, as is too common with men born south of “Mason and Dixon’s Line,” he became, while thus situated, the acknowledged father of a colored child. In answer to the above-mentioned proposition, I said—“It will do no good, Miss —, so long as such distinguished young ladies as Miss — — admit of his attentions. It was only last Sabbath, at the close of the third service, and while the sun was yet above the horizon, that she took his arm in the centre aisle of the church and thence promenaded the principal street in the village with him. And while he can enjoy her society, he will laugh to scorn all our acts of non-intercourse.” The lady acknowledged that male organization would do no good, while such young females would smile complacently upon the libertine. Female Moral Reform Societies are, then, so exactly the organizations which the cause of virtue demands, that they must either be given up, or vice must be driven from community. Females only can guard the temple of virtue from the approach of the impure and the unclean.But, the rashness and indiscretion, so called, of some of the prominent leaders in this work, is esteemed a justifiable ground of opposition by many persons. Now it is a well known fact, that pioneers in every great work of reformation, are denounced as rash and imprudent, both by the timid observers and the open opposers of the cause. An exception to this rule was never known on earth; and it affords, indeed, a comfortable salvo to the consciences of such men as know they ought, but do not possess the moral courage, to labor in every good work.* But justice requires me to say that many opposers of this class are not awake to the magnitude of the evil in question: if they were, their language of reprobation would be as severe as any ever used by those they now condemn. Besides, very great allowance should be made for pioneers, unaided by the experience of others, and generally opposed by those who afterwards are made to regret that they did not five them their co-operation and counsel. Let the truly virtuous awake to the magnitude and influence of the evil in question, and the supposed indiscretions of the sainted M’DOWELL will not prevent their laboring in this good cause.Again it is said that our labors tend to excite unjust suspicions against the virtuous, by establishing a sort of inquisitorial supervision of the characters of men. That they are calculated to strip the assumed cloak of virtue from the character of the vicious, is very true; but is it unjust to tear off the sheep’s clothing of the world, in order thereby to save the flock from his voracious jaws? or, to show the cloven foot of the adversary when he is “transformed to an angel of light?” As individuals, we can have no more inducements to excite unjust suspicions against the virtuous in this particular vice, than we have in reference to any other; and slanders here are just as amenable to common law as any others, and generally more severely punished. Our labors are designed, and calculated to lead a virtuous community to frown upon the acknowledged or well-known libertine, as it now frowns upon the unchaste woman: and if virtuous women do not become unjustly suspected in the present state of society, neither would virtuous men in that for which we labor. No intelligent persons complain of the present popular feeling towards unchaste women; while all allow that it is one of the strongest safe-guards of female virtue. In France and Italy, where coutezans are not esteemed infamous, comparatively few virtuous females can be found:—and let the tide of moral feeling in this country flow in a similar channel, and in half a century our morals would descend to a level with those of licentious Europe. Or give our principals universal success, by rendering licentious men as infamous as licentious women, and fifty years would give us a purer moral atmosphere than this world has ever before enjoyed.Another plausible objection is that children ought not to be told that such a vice exists in society. But are they now generally untaught in the matter? Rather, are they not every day being instructed in the worst possible school? They learn from associates and domestics the whole vocabulary of vice; and while the parents perhaps flatter themselves that their minds are as free from taint as pure air of heaven, they are possibly already half destroyed. They must learn,—they will learn;—is it not best therefore that their knowledge be obtained from a pure, rather than from an impure source? I knew a pious and highly respected pair, who never suspected that a favorite daughter knew aught of this matter, until, at the age of but little more than thirteen she was about to become a mother; and then it appeared that she had been mentally poisoned and ruined by a hired man, aged about forty years; and the only reparation he could offer to these injured parents was proposition to marry their dishonored daughter.I knew a lady who was brought up in the lap of wealth and fashion—the wife of one of the most distinguished men of wealth in N. E., and the mother of one only child—a daughter—an heiress of half a million, upon whose education, care, and money had been lavished in rich profusion. When this idolized daughter was about the age of twenty, I was providentially brought into such an intercourse with the mother as necessarily to speak of the proper course of youthful training. Her views were erroneous; and, as a final answer to my arguments, she said, with great firmness and complacency,—“I have a daughter—and she is all that a mother can wish a daughter to be—and she was never told that she has any thing to rest upon as a ground of acceptance with God, but her own native, inherent virtue.” She then idolized her truly beautiful daughter, and supposed her as pure as an angel of light. But, in a few short months, this cup of joy was dashed from her trembling hand, and her soul made to pant even for the darkness of the grave. Her daughter had lived in sin six year with a married man—a connection, and an intimate, confidential friend of the family—one of your gentlemen libertines, whom these fond parents thought it safe to trust, and whom, if his victim had been some poor girl, they would still have deemed it safe to trust. But here he acted out the true character of a licentious man: he took an artless girl, ignorant and confiding—and, regardless of consequences, poisoned her mind, and led her on in this polluted way to hell for six years before his iniquity came to light: and when the cloud did burst, it was with a tempest too strong from even his brazen front to bear. The father, with a bursting heart, proclaimed his villiany at the corners of the streets—told of the soul stricken wife and mother at home—of his blasted hopes and ruined earthly prospects—and of the villain whom he had trusted with his money, his confidence, and even with the honor of his now ruined child. In this way the sympathies of the whole community were enlisted in his behalf; and a burst of indignation against the villain was expressed so unanimous and loud, that he fled from a beautiful wife and four lovely children, and sought safety for his person in ignominious exile; from which he has not even yet dared return. And so ought the popular feeling to be expressed toward every man who will villainously circumvent and destroy a confiding female, whether belonging to the higher or the humbler walks of life.Children may be taught all their moral dangers in this world with perfect safety; and if virtuous parents do not instruct them, vicious associates may do it—the result of whose instructions may prove a burden too great for their afflicted souls to bear.Finally, some oppose us because they profess to think that this vice flourishes best under opposition and exposure; while it would absolutely die of neglect if left alone to itself. But this objection is supremely absurd, as well as palpably false. Was it Moral Reform efforts, or indifference to the sin, that caused the antediluvian earth to be covered with licentiousness and violence? Which of the two was it that caused Sodom to become such a sink of filth and pollution? Which is it that now fills France and Italy, and the heathen world, with so many chambers of rioting and wantonness, and moral death? In short, does the “let alone” policy—a favorite of some very good as well as very prudent men—please God or Satan? angels or devils? virtuous men or villains?—Judge ye—and as ye judge so act, in the fear of God, and with due regard to the welfare of a ruined world.——“Balls and Dancing.”—At a late meeting of the Norfolk Conference in Dedham, the Rev. Mr. Hitchcock of Randolph read a dissertation on ‘Balls and Dancing, as scenes of amusement for Christian parents and their children.’ A discussion followed by members of the conference, which resulted in the following resolution:Resolved, That in view of this Conference the practice of dancing and encouraging balls and assemblies by professors of religion, either by attending themselves, or permitting their children to attend, is utterly inconsistent with the Christian character and profession; and ought to be unequivocally condemned and firmly resisted, by all the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ.The conference unanimously requested the author of the Dissertation to furnish a copy for the Boston Recorder. We may, therefore, have it in our power to read it, and to spread it before our readers.We doubt not that some Christian parents find this one source of painful perplexity to themselves as well as of strong temptation to their children. The latter, perhaps, will not yield to their dissuasives; or perhaps parents are too little earnest in their remonstrances, because their children do not receive them kindly, but even think hardly of them for attempting to restrain their inclinations. But parents should bear in mind that these same children will one day change their minds. If not converted to Christ, they must still die. In the near view of death it is more than probable, that their most distressing remorse will arise from habits and courses of which these amusements were the commencement. They will then regard their parents as cruel for not having restrained them,—by the interposition of authority, if need were. If Christian parents then would avoid the reproaches of their children, on their death beds, or in a hopeless eternity, let them train them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord—of which vain amusements certainly constitute no part.THE ADVOCATE.——New York, July 16, 1838.

☞ The Editor is now absent from the city, and two or three of the future numbers of the Advocate will be issued during her absence. Our readers, however, will, after this number, be supplied with the usual quantity of Editorial from her pen; and in the mean time, errors that should not escape the ever vigilant eye of an Editor, must be charged to the inexperience of those upon whom the burden of preparing articles for publication will, for a short time, devolve.——☞ Letters respecting subscriptions to the Advocate, remittances, requests to stop the paper or change the direction, orders for papers or pamphlets, and applications for agencies to procure subscribers, &c,. should always be directed to the Publishing Agent, George Cragin; letters from auxiliary societies should be addressed to the Corresponding Secretary, Mrs. S. R. Ingraham; all communications intended for the paper to the editor of the Advocate of Moral Reform, Sarah T. Smith. If items of business are alluded to on the same sheet, it should be done in a separate note, by itself—and in that case the letter should be directed to the Publishing Agent.——Notice. Five or six domestics, who are provided with the necessary references, may find good situations in pious families, by immediate appointment at 57, Hudson-street.——A Committee from the Board of Managers of the Parent Society have been delegated to visit several Auxiliaries in Vermont and New Hampshire, and have left a few days since. The co-operation or aid that may be afforded them by the friends of the cause with whom they are privileged to meet, will be highly appreciated by the Society.——Thoughts on Miss S. M.Grimke’s “Duties of Woman.”While as a woman, I am grateful to my sister for awakening our sex to a sense of the duties as immortal and responsible beings, I greatly fear that in her exposition of scripture, she has departed from the true principles of interpretation, and furnished a weapon to the sceptic or the infidel, which he will not fail to use to his own advantage. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and cannot therefore contradict itself; what then, if her reasoning be correct, are we to do with the numerous passages in the Old and New Testament, which recognize the social inferiority of woman to man, thought they do not all affect the fact of her moral and mental equality?—“Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee,” is not equivocal language. Neither are the following expressions of Paul, in the 5th chapter of Eph., from the 22d to the 25th verse.—“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” “Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.” How could stronger language or a more striking comparison be employed? Submission, unlimited it seems to me, excepting by our paramount duty to God, is enjoined by the Apostle, if there is any meaning in language. When a woman marries, she does voluntarily vest her civil rights in another, and as in such a union, the name and interests of one must necessarily be merged in those of the other. God has decided the question, which might else have occasioned endless jarring and discontent. If, (as is too often the fact) the husband abuse the authority with which he is invested, the wife is still bound by the law of her God, and to him alone may she appeal, who is the avenger of the oppressed. Let it not be said I am traitorously giving up the interests of my sex. It is because I feel the value of our true interests, and am deeply sensible of the importance of our appropriate sphere, that I wish to guard myself and others, against every error, which may tend to weaken our influence, and impair our usefulness. Whatever God has appointed, must on the whole be best and the domestic constitution came directly from Him, recognizing as a fundamental principle, the supremacy of man in the social and domestic circle, but giving to woman as an equivalent, an influence which is almost unbounded. Let us, then, by elevating the character, and cultivating the intellect of our sex, seek to improve this influence to the best advantage for the glory of God, and the good of society. The duties of women, rather than their rights, should be studiously explained and enforced, for in no other way can we come up to the high standard of obligation which the Gospel has imposed upon us. We have other and higher business than a vain contest for superiority with those who have so long tasted the sweets of power, that they are not likely to relinquish it without a struggle. “Men” may “make laws, but women make manners;” in the reformation of manners then, is a field wide enough for the exercise of the loftiest ambition and the noblest energies. Let us, my dear sister, talk less, and act more.An Interested Observer.——For the Advocate of Moral Reform.“What is there to do in the Country?”Recent information from a village at the west, where I spent a few weeks last winter, has suggested the propriety of writing a short article for your valuable paper.In the village of W—, is a large number of intelligent and respectable young people. Among themselves and in their own way, they seemed to be enjoying much of what the world calls pleasure.—Social parties, and gay assemblies were numerous, and they congratulated themselves on being the happiest community in the world, as if amusement were the prime end of existence.Soon after my arrival there, I inquired for a M. R Society, and was informed that one had been organized under the influence of a lecturer, but had not met since, as they had not felt sufficiently interested, to have any action upon the subject. Wishing to see a certain number of the Advocate, I inquired if it was taken by any individuals, but could find none; it was presumed there were none taken in the place. While there, I listened to conversation to this effect: Mr. S., a member of the E. Church, had ruined his wife’s sister, who was brought up in the family, and supports her and her child a few miles distant. This daughter E. receives the attention of a Mr. W., a man of notoriously immoral character. Again I was told that a member of the P. Church, a milliner, was led astray by a young man who was employed in a store in the same building of the millinery establishment. She was afterward excommunicated from the church. I have just received intelligence by a letter from a young friend, of another case. She writes thus—“A most unhappy circumstance occurred here last week, which will inflict indelible disgrace upon those concerned. A young lady who resides between this village and S. F., a member of our church, and belonging to one of the most respectable families in town, has recently become a mother. Her parents had never suspected her guilt, and when it was announced to her mother, she fainted and fell upon the floor. She was seduced by one to whom she had been for a long time engaged.” The suitor of this young lady was known to be an unprincipled man.What have we to do in the country? Shall we go to the metropolis, as some gravely tell us, to subdue the enemy, licentiousness? What have we to do with the world in general? Have we not already learned that little good can be done in any righteous cause till the churches are awake to their responsibility. If churches which are represented as the lights of the world, exhibit so much darkness, and see not their need of purification, how should the world? It is startling to some, to speak to them of corrupt churches, or of corrupt members in any church, as if there would be no Peters to deny their Lord, or Judases to betray him. Yet it is even so, and to our grief we are compelled to say it.—God has in all ages made us of his enlightened children, his peculiar ones, to reform and purify the church, and through this channel salvation mush flow, if its benign influences are to benefit a guilty world. I am astonished when I see those who might have the proper kind of information, heedlessly sacrificing their reputation, peace and happiness, to the specious arts of the libertine, when they might in this day so easily be apprised of the enemies they have to encounter.And now, ere I close, I would say one word to the under shepherds of the churches, for some at least, are readers of the Advocate. Does not the depravity of the age render it necessary that you should awake to the promotion of virtue and purity in the community, especially among the flock of which you are appointed overseers? In a late number of the Advocate, we have seen a laudable example of our Madison sisters, in behalf of purity in our land.—We congratulate them on having the ministry in their favor. Permit me to quote a few words from them, that the sentiment may be impressed upon the minds of some who have hitherto been indifferent. “We are much encouraged by the active and efficient aid we received from our clergymen, who are decided friends of moral purity. They have given us addresses, and are ever ready to strengthen our hands and encourage our hearts, by their counsel and prayers.” Here is the secret of so much success. Will the ministers go forward in this reformation, in a proper and judicious manner, and thus become efficient agents in bringing about an even so desirable? Mothers, will you concur in these exertions, by representing to your children the dangers and snares to which they are exposed, and the best means of escaping them? Do you not suppose that more are lost by prejudice and ignorance upon this subject than by proper information? Again, do you believe that, if parents were to instruct their children in the truths of God’s word, when they lie down, when they rise up, and when they walk by the way, we should so frequently hear of fainting mothers, and broken hearts?H. G.——For the Advocate of Moral Reform.Fatal Neutrality.

“Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” Judg. v. 23.

The people of God had, for their sins, fallen under a pagan power. God can chastise a guilty people, by permitting some heathen abominations to overwhelm them. A female heroine in Israel felt her spirit stirred to attack the abominable power, and free her nation form its awful cause. Her courage and conduct proved, under God, equal to the mighty undertaking. Men united in the effort, under her direction, and an effectual deliverance was wrought—notwithstanding Deborah and her unarmed force had to contend with the mighty king Jabin, and his captain general Sisera, and their nine hundred chariots of iron, no doubt well manned. The captain general Sisera was forced to flee for his life, and another female heroine (Jael) drove her tent nail through his temples and completed the victory. This mighty deliverance of God’s people was a type (President Edwards assures us) of events of these last days: as is evident (he says) from Rev. xvi. 16, where the spirits of devils gather antichrist, and the millions of the vile enemies of God on earth, to the place called Armageddon, for the battle of the great day of God Almighty—or to the very place where the battle under Deborah was fought, Judg. v. 19. That battle, we here learn, was a type of the battle of the great day. And certain things may attend the antitype (the battle of the great day) similar to those which distinguished the type—female conduct and heroism. That it may be thus, various considerations render more than possible.Let us narrate a fact which attended that typical event, and which occasioned the bitter curse in our text. The inhabitants of Meroz, a town in Judea, undertook to save themselves from all the danger, obloquy and expense of that enterprise, by taking neutral ground. They concluded they would have nothing to do with it, and this their decision was hostile to the cause of Israel; for, “He that is not for me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad.” But that branch of the people cared not for this. Their own popularity, safety and pleasure must be sought. This was enough for them. Probably they thought that Deborah was stepping out of her place. She ought to be in female retirement, and not think to teach and lead men, and to attack so enormous an enemy! The attempt would only plunge them the deeper in disgrace and ruin! At any rate, if she succeeded they should share in the deliverance, of course; and if she failed, (as they no doubt assumed she would) they should be safe from the disgrace and danger of having undertaken such an expedition. In short, they should save their money, and their credit too! This was their policy, and it is that of millions, in cases of no less interest—a time-serving, man-pleasing policy—wishing to be on good terms with all sides!But “God seeth not as man seeth.” “Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord (Jesus Christ); curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, the help of the Lord against the mighty.” They bought their neutrality most dearly! The words of the text had a meaning, which God fulfilled. This bitter curse of the captain of our salvation went not for nothing! Meroz seems to have been blotted out from Israel, as no mention of its existence is ever after found. Its inhabitants came not to the help of the Lord, led by that female influence—the help of the Lord against the mighty! It was God’s cause that they resisted and discouraged, the cause of him who “is jealous, and revengeth,” and he launched the thunder of his bitter curse upon them.An evil is now prevailing, far more horrid than was that captivity to Jabin, and far more fatal than were Sisera’s nine hundred chariots of iron. The latter destroyed worldly prosperity; the former destroys (for millions innumerable) both soul and body in hell—in addition to poisoning and destroying the temporal peace of families and of individuals. It is a captivity most alarming and destructive. It is an evil which men have not dared to attack, but have suffered it to pass in silence, till it has awfully corrupted and endangered the very existence of civilized society, and all domestic bliss, and threatened to covert the world into one vast Sodom! While this evil has been rising and increasing to this enormous magnitude, men have slept, and even ministers of the gospel have kept silence! “it will not do to preach or say a word against this overwhelming vice! The very naming of it would do more harm than good! The less that is said concerning it, the better! Let it alone; it will cure itself! Delicacy, delicacy forbids that any warning should ever be given concerning it!”This policy of silence has long been pursued by men, ministers and churches, till vast portions of our earth were sinking in a vortex of filth and ruin, and the evil was spreading like a fatal flame in a city, unchecked and unheeded! Pious females, driven at last in self-defence, and excited by conscience and the fear of God, were led to combine their prayers and mutual efforts to expose and check this torrent of destruction from the world below; and through the mercy of God, they have got their cause well under way. They have aroused the attention of many thousands, and combined their prayers and efforts against this most deadly foe. And their blessed cause is prevailing far and near, to waken the attention of multitudes, long asleep, to the extent of the sin and danger, to a sense of their criminal neglect, and to a determination to bring forth fruits meet for repentance. God is blessing their efforts, and crowning them with abundant success.But it is deeply to be regretted that too many pastors of churches in our land have, hitherto, taken their stand against to ladies of the moral reform. It is fully to be expected that debauchees, vile seducers of females, licentious men, who glory in their shame, will fear and hate such attempts to expose them, and to hold them up to merited infamy. It is fully in character with such men to cry, Delicacy! and to slander moral reformers. But it is astonishing that so many professors, and even ministers, should stand aloof from the righteous cause! I was lately informed by a pious minister in a great city, that most of the ministers there were opposed to the moral reform efforts, and would not favor the circulation of such papers. O tell it not in Gath! Tell it not among the pagans! Why do not such ministers purify their Bibles, by cutting out about one-twentieth part of them? Do they not virtually do it by leaving such a part utterly unenforced, if not unread in public? The word of God itself must be thus insulted, as an indelicate book. The very numerous warnings there, and judgments of God against the licentious, must be thus virtually condemned. “Shall mortal man be more pure than his Maker?” Shall he undertake to decide what warnings of God against licentiousness may, and what man not, be recited? Shall he condemn the plain teachings of Heaven against this sin? Do such men come to the help of the Lord against the mighty? Are they more concerned for perishing souls, and the cause of righteousness? God commands them to warn the wicked—“Cause Jerusalem to know her abominations.” “Thou shalt receive the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me”—“cry aloud, spare not”—“warn them that are unruly.” Shall we say, yew, unless their unruliness lies in the sin of licentiousness—then we must be excused. This is too delicate a subject; we cannot recite what God says concerning it. The Lord pardon his servant in this thing. Old Balaam, who found he was not permitted to curse Israel, knew what would bring a curse upon them, and informed Barak what to do. This Barak did, and the end was answered. He thus “laid a stumbling block before the people of God,” and twenty-three thousand, in consequence, fell by the plague—which plague the rod of Phineas stayed—and God says “it was counted to him for righteousness.” How could Phineas be so indelicate? Surely, he lived not in modern times! For what plagues are our cities and nation ripening? And happy, if no modern Balaam shall be found accessory to the guilty cause of the plagues, by conniving at it, at least, and laboring to have a perfect silence attend its enormous progression! This bitter curse of the angel of the covenant is launched against all such—what can shield them from it. Repentance and reformation alone can do it? Such partiality in the law, God says, shall render them “contemptible.” Mal. ii. 9. This is what such men wish to avoid. But their mistaken method of avoiding it is the way to plunge them in the fatal net. Happy it is, that Christ will come as refiner’s fire and as fuller’s soap, and will purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness! Then the enormity of abominations will not be plead, as the reason why they should not be exposed. Nor will the ministers of Christ feel themselves to be too delicate to proclaim the most solemn judgments and warnings of God against licentiousness.An Aged Minister.

EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE.= ==Springfield, Mass., May 21, 1838.On returning to my native land from the Sandwich Islands, whither I have been gone a few years, I was received and kindly entertained in the family of a widow lady, in one of our large commercial cities; and on my leaving, she refused to receive any remuneration for her trouble. She seemed warmly devoted to the cause of benevolence in general, and strongly advocated the cause in which you are engaged. Considering that what was thus kindly given me is not my own to be treasured up, I forward it to you, that it may be employed in sending light and truth to the dwelling of darkness on the subject of moral purity, in my own beloved America. And while its streams make glad the city of our God here, will there not arise from the altar of every Christian heart, the prayer of faith, that God will stay the torrents of sin and pollution in lands of “deepest darkness,” where your brothers and sisters labor and pray, and die? And will not the coffers of rich Christians soon be emptied into the treasury of the Lord, that the chariot wheels of the millennium shall be no longer clogged, by such stinted efforts to bring forward its glorious appearing? Oh that the privilege of sending the Gospel of purity and peace to every creature, may not be taken away from us, from American Christians, and given to a nation that will do it less tardily.B.——Moores, Clinton co., N. Y., May 25, 1838.Dear Sisters—Our society was first formed March 6, 1834, and was at that time auxiliary to the N.Y. Female Benevolent Society, with a pledge “to do all in our power to prevent licentiousness” and its attendant vices. For a time our society, though small, was prosperous. Frequent meetings were held, and frequent addresses delivered. In April, 1835, a new constitution was adopted, and our society became auxiliary to the N.Y.F.M.R.S.; and the cause of moral purity continued still, for a season, to advance in strength and interest.But a long interval supineness and inactivity succeeded this state of things. Our meetings were neglected—our society became almost, if not quite, extinct. While a few continued to mourn over the abominations that prevail in our land, a majority even of our numbers seemed forgetful or regardless of the fact, that the enemy was awake and active; that licentiousness, like a resistless torrent, was bearing down before it all that was valuable in society, carrying unmitigated woe wherever it went, and leaving nothing in its track but remorse, despair, and death; that it was filling, not our cities only, but the country, with moral pollution, and exposing our children, even our little ones, and that too almost under the eye of the parent, to contamination from the impure conversation and practices of the “initiated.”But God has not left us thus stupid. He has not said to us, as he justly might have done, “Sleep on now,” and enjoy, as best you may, your untimely repose, till the monster himself shall rouse you by fastening his fangs in your own heartstrings—by sowing the seeds of a remediless ruin in your own beloved domestic circles—by causing you to reap at your own firesides a harvest of untold anguish.—On the contrary, he has again caused us to feel an interest in this cause. Our society has recently been revived and reorganized, and as the first fruits we send the enclosed.Perhaps I ought here to mention that, in the providence of God, this change has been effected, principally, through the instrumentality of Mrs. Kingsly, an aged widow lady, (relict of Rev. Mr. Kingsly) who has long been a zealous and untiring advocate of moral reform, and whose labors God has blessed in the forming and reviving of numerous other societies in this region.We now number seventy-four members, and hold stated monthly meetings. Since our reorganization the Rev. Solomon Williams of Addison, Vt., has preached to us from Ex: xx. 14. The Rev. Mr. Seaton, also, of this place, has, at our request, delivered an address before the society.With many prayers to Almighty God for your success, and that we, in our humble sphere may not be slothful servants, we remain, &c.,In behalf of the society,Mary H. W. Seaton, Sec’y.——Ferrisburgh, 5th mo. 23d, 1838.There is still need of unwearied effort. The vice you combat, is one of those to which unregenerate man is prone as the sparks fly upwards: and I have sometimes thought professing Christian have countenanced it, by suffering others to jest about it in their presence, without rebuke. When shall we learn to keep ourselves pure according to the apostle’s injunction, not fearing to cast off associates who will annoy our ears with ideas we should not choose to utter. ******Marriage is a subject too, most generally treated with a great deal of levity, especially before young people. In my estimation this is just the reverse of what it ought to be. Were I about taking a partner into my trade, I should weigh well all circumstances attending such a connection—how much more necessary then in a partnership for life.——A letter from the Secretary of the Clinton Society says:Our chief hope lies in the correct training of the rising generation. To parents, and especially mothers, we look for the accomplishment of the work before us. Let our mothers awake to this subject, and combining daily prayer with God’s truth, give precept upon precept and line upon line, and we may confidently expect our sons to grow up the tender guardians of female purity, and scorning to act the seducer’s part, fortify those enclosures in which our daughters may safely dwell, and in the discharge of life’s duties bring forth the choice fruits of holiness and peace.——North Penfield, N. Y., May 25th, 1838.Dear Sisters—With pleasure we announce to you the organization of a Ladies’ Moral Reform Society in this place, in October last, with eight members, to be auxiliary to the New York Female Moral Reform Society. It now numbers forty or more. Owing to the unsettled state of the ministry in this place, and other unavoidable circumstances, we have never been favored with a public address on the subject; consequently, there is much ignorance and misapprehension as to the design of the Society. Some have ridiculed, and vainly hoped to effect by taunts and jeers what could not be done by sound and sober reasoning. A few professors of religion are found in the ranks of opposers, who debar their children from reading your valuable paper. Others, with apparent sincerity, admit the object to be good, and find no fault with the constitution, yet think a Society unnecessary and uncalled for in this place. But we think otherwise; and that an effort is necessary to arrest the progress of impurity even here. I say arrest; for already has the “monster” began his destructive march in this “country-place of pure morality,” and caused pious hearts to bleed over sinning relatives, and others to fear and tremble lest their beloved ones should fall into the snare of the destroyer.We have received 7 copies of the Advocate the past year, which have been read with interest, and circulated to some extent. We wish to obtain and circulate twenty copies the ensuing year, if you can afford to send so many for the enclosed ten dollars, which is all we can send at the present. We hope to increase the number of subscribers, and make donations to your Society. In the mean time, praying that you may have wisdom to direct, courage to meet opposition, and grace to conquer, until immorality of every name shall have ceased, and pure Gospel principles reign in every heart, we remain yours, &c.On behalf of the Society,Eunice St. John, Sec’y.

ANNUAL REPORTS OF AUXILIARIES.

First Annual Report of the F. M. R. Society, Wethersfield.The Annual Meeting of the Society was held on the 25th of January last. An address was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Jewett, which could not fail to enlist the feelings and warm the heart of every philanthropist and Christian, and which even drew forth the involuntary approbation of some of the strongest opposers. Opposition has been encountered from a source whence they had expected better things—namely, from the Christian community. But in spite of misrepresentation, contumely and reproach, the society has been prospered, and their efforts have been blessed far beyond their expectations. The society now numbers fifty-five. Many of the members live remote from each other, and it is, therefore, inconvenient to meet as often as they otherwise would. In view of this inconvenience, a resolution was adopted at their last meeting, to spend one hour each Thursday, in fervent prayer, that God would bless the efforts, and stay up the hands of the dear sisters, who are pioneers in this great work.Ann A. Groger, Sec’y.——First Annual Report of the F. M. R. Society, Granby, Licking Co., Ohio.The First Annual Meeting of the Society was held April 5th. Seventeen of the members were present. Eleven subscribed to the Constitution; the number now is 34. Ten copies of the Advocate have been taken and circulated by the Society, and by this means deep-rooted prejudice has been removed. The Advocate is now taken by some, who, at first, would not read it. Their stated meetings for prayer are held on the first Thursday in each month, at which time the Parent Society, and especially the visiting committee are remembered at the throne of grace.—The letter of the Secretary says, “We feel that your visiting committee have accomplished much good—we cordially give them the right hand of fellowship, and bid them God speed in their self-denying work and labor of love.” Although we are situated “remote from cities,” yet the foul monster, licentiousness, has been in advance of Moral Reform efforts, and has made fearful inroads into many, otherwise, happy families. We are beginning to feel that we must be guardians of our own children. We have learned that “a man may smile, and smile, and be a villain still.” Our beloved pastor, the Rev. Israel Mattison, gave an address to our Society a few months since, and often from the sacred desk declares God’s hatred of the sin of impurity, and the certain doom that awaits those who break the seventh commandment. We cannot boast of having achieved great things, yet we think the day of small things is not to be despised. We need the sympathies and the prayers of sister societies.Laurinda Sennet, Sec’y.

First Annual Report of the F. M. R. Society, Ferrisburgh and vicinity.This Society has met with much discouragement in the shape of ridicule and apathy. But notwithstanding it all, most of the young ladies in the vicinity have come forward and pledged themselves for the support of its principles. At the organization of the Society there were 20 members; 50 have been added during the year, making 70.—They have had addresses from three different ministers at different times from Mr. C. DeVol, Methodist, Mr. H. F. Leavitt, Congregational, and Mr. J. A. Dodge, Baptist. They have met for business and free discussion once a month, until the removal of their Secretary, Mrs. Dodge, in November last.Hannah L. Lyman, Sec’y.——Second Annual Report of the Jamestown, N. Y., F. M. R. Society.The number of members in this society is now 104. Seven were added during the last month. It has been the painful duty of the society to cut off one of their members, for conduct inconsistent with her professed principles. May this painful circumstance prove the means of exciting every one of our number to greater circumspection and renewed effort in this holy cause.The meetings of the society have been held quarterly, and have been interesting and well sustained. A collection has been taken up regularly, to defray the expenses of the society, and to purchase the Advocate for distribution. An address has been delivered during the year, by Rev. Amos Hawley, to a large assembly of ladies. We trust the young ladies of our community will soon feel their responsibilities, and come to our help with their characteristic enthusiasm and energy.On behalf of the society,B. M. Dewey, Sec’y.——The following beautiful lines are from the pen of Mrs. Sigourney.Deuteronomy, xxxiii. 25.When adverse winds and waves arise,And in my heart despondence sighs,When life her throng of cares reveals,And weakness o’er my spirit steals,Grateful I hear the kind decree,That “as my day, my strength shall be.”

One trial more must yet be past—One pang— the keenest and the last:And when with brow convuls’d and pale,My feeble, quivering heart-strings fail,Redeemer! grant my soul to see,That “as her day, her strength shall be.”——In the language and sentiments of the following appeal, we cordially concur, and we do so, not the less heartily, because every word is strictly applicable to another great evil, which like intemperance is a foul blot on our national character. We ask every woman who thinks she has nothing to do in relation to the sin of licentiousness, to ponder well this address and see if it is not in all resects strictly applicable to this very subject. Every argument that applies to one case, is equally cogent in relation to the other.From the Mother’s Magazine.Appeal to Females.“We are verily guilty concerning our brother.” Gen. xlii. 21.When to expunge a foul blot from national character, the great, and wise, and benevolent, combine their energies, it becomes not those of humble name or obscure station, to remain indifferent. The weaker sex, who depend for safety and protection on others, have immense interests at stake, in the morality and purity of the community. Their plea of want of power can scarcely be admitted as a fair release from responsibility, since the moralists, and even the politicians, of our own day have asserted, that no evil can obtain great predominance in the community, without the permission of females.The cause of Temperance, which has already wrought such wonders, and has still a giant’s work to perform, claims their earnest co-operation. Surely they, whose duties and felicities are involved in the domestic and maternal relations, should be peculiarly and painfully watchful against every approach of a sin which desecrates home’s hallowed sanctuary.We do not, of course, address those who have given their hand to the Destroyer,—who, in the strong language of inspiration, have “made a covenant with the grave, and with hell are at agreement.” We are sensible that scarcely any agent, save the voice of Him who raiseth the dead, is available to break their bondage. But they, who with regard to this insidious poison, literally obey the precept, “touch not, taste not, handle not,” and suppose themselves absolved from all other effort:—are they therefore absolved.My sisters, if we assent to the proposition, that not to prevent sin, when in our power to do so, is as blamable as to have aided in its perpetration, are we justified in supineness, while such multitudes are going down to the grave with this leprosy in their skirts, and in their soul? Do we to the teaching of example, add the whole weight of that influence, which the courtesy of an enlightened age and the condescension of the religion of Jesus, have in these latter days accorded us? If we are conscious of remissness, let the words of the poet admonish us—“Lo! our not doing is set downAmong our darkest deeds.”—Let the word of inspiration counsel us, to avoid the anguish with which the erring sons of Jacob exclaimed, “We are verily guilty concerning our brother.”Intemperance is by the fire side—at the household board—in the nursery,—have we nothing to do? We whose affections have taken root by that fire side,—whose province it is to make that household board subservient to health and heavenly gratitude,—to whom that nursery is the garner of the fondest hopes for time and eternity:—shall we perceive, amid those sacred haunts, the footsteps of the enemy, and slumber?Wife!—who by a solemn vow before men and angels, hast entered into a union which death alone can sever, has it been your fate to see the vice of intemperance casting a deadly shadow over a heart in which, next to heaven, was your confidence? And day by day, and hour after hour, as you watched its fearful ravage, have you been vigilant, not to upbraid, not to argue reproachfully, but to repress your own sorrows, to render home desirable, to re-awaken those affections which are the guardians of purity and peace? Above all, were your supplications unceasing to Him who “turneth the heart of man as the rivers of waters are turned?” If so, though the harvest of your labors may have perished,--though the disruption of your hopes, nothing earthly can supply—still you will have escaped that deeper torture of reflecting, that you are “verily guilty concerning” him who was once “your more than brother,—and your next to God.”Mother!—whose duties are laid deeper than any vow of the lips, even the immutable strength of a love that cannot swerve,—have you counselled your offspring in this matter, “rising up early, and late taking rest?” Among those habits which modify character, did you inculcate the control of the animal appetites,—the superiority of happiness derived from intellect and virtue, to the fleeting pleasures of sense,—the nobleness of subjugating the flesh to the spirit? Did you oppose with your frown, with the force of your authority, the first aberation from these principles? Did you fully set before them the infirmity of their nature, the dangers that surround them, the necessity that they should seek help from God? At dawn, and at noon day, and in the hush of midnight, was there a lifting up of your heart, that they might be “temperate in all things?” Yet, should it be your lot to behold one whom you had nurtured, blot the inheritance of his ancestors, and sink into the drunkard’s grave,--God forbid that you stand before his tribunal, and say, “I an verily guilty concerning”—Whom?—not the brother whose habits you might not have been able to influence,—not the husband, whom it was not your province to control,—but the child, whom you brought into life, and loved more than life,—the child, for the first pencil-led lines upon whose soul you are accountable,—because it was intrusted to you as soft and unsullied wax that you might stamp it with the seal of heaven.L. H. S.——From the Lynn Record.Dr. E. A. Kittredge.☞Our readers will notice below a communication or advertisement relating to a most daring insult offered to the person of Mrs. Waldo, by Dr. E. A. Kittredge, of this town. It may be proper to add, that Mrs. Waldo is the wife of Rev. J. C. Waldo, and has, in the several years she has lived in this town, always sustained an unblemished moral character, quite beyond suspicion. The outrage was aggravated by the circumstances under which it was committed. Dr. K. had been her family physician. She was going to Boston, where her father now lives. Dr. K. being also going there with a horse and chaise, invited her to ride with him, which she accepted, and it was in the evening on their way home, that the insult was offered, and continued with fiendish pertinacity and violence, which decency will not permit to be described. After all this, and an acknowledgement of guilt under oath, to throw out insinuations against the character of his victim, is perhaps the most brutish and diabolical part of the outrage.To the Public.Dr. E. A. Kittredge, of this place, as is well known, in this vicinity, offered, a few weeks ago, a most vile and unprovoked insult to Mrs. J. C. Waldo. The next day, the Doctor made, in writing, an humble acknowledgment to Mrs. W., and subsequently to Mr. W. himself—which were, in amount, what he has made oath to below. When Dr. K. was informed by the injured and insulted parties, that his base conduct would be made public, he threatened to vindicate his own character, at the expense of that of the outraged victim of his lusts. This threat he accordingly executed—contradicting what he had most solemnly, in the name of God and Heaven, both to Mr. and Mrs. Waldo, sworn to be the truth. In consequence of this unhallowed and inhuman course, the Doctor was brought before a justice of the peace, and required to make his confession under the solemnity of an oath, which was as follows—Lynn, May 22, 1838.This is to certify, that in relation to an unhappy affair, of which I am solely the cause, between me and Mrs. Waldo, I do most solemnly swear, that she, (Mrs. W.) was in no wise guilty, but that she opposed my conduct with all her mental and physical power. And I moreover do solemnly swear, that Mrs. Waldo NEVER gave me reason to suppose, either in word or deed, that my conduct on that occasion towards herself, would be acceptable or tolerated. I do still further, solemnly swear, that my conduct to Mrs. W. on the above-named occasion, was received by her with manifestations of horror, disgust, grief, and even fainting. I do also most solemnly swear, that I have nothing to say in justification of my conduct at that time, except it to be, that I was carried away by my feelings, over which I had, and the time, no control, and committed deeds, which, since I came to my reason and senses, I view with penitence and loathing.E. A. KITTREDGE.[Essex, ss. May 22, 1838. Then personally appeared the within-named E. A. Kittredge and made solemn oath to the above affidavit by him subscribed before me.Enoch Curtin,Justice of the Peace for said county.From the place of making the above oath, the Doctor went forth and reported, that he had sworn falsely; and continued, as before, to insinuate his unprincipled falsehoods, unfavorable to the characters of both Mr. and Mrs. Waldo. He even said to justice Curtin, before whom he had sworn, that he had perjured himself—or to that amount. When inquired of by Mr. Waldo’s friends, why he conducted thus wickedly, and was told, that legal measures would be taken with him, the Doctor avowed, that he had never denied the truth of what he had made oath to, in the above affidavit—but that in moments of excited feeling, he had said things which had been construed into a denial of it. Accordingly, the Doctor wrote the following, and signed the same in presence of the witnesses below, as a denial of all he might have said or insinuated since making oath to the above confession, that could be construed as a contradiction of all, or any part of his affidavit, whether in public, in private, in confidence, or otherwise,“I, the subscriber, do hereby acknowledge, that in moments of anger, excited by the thousand false rumors about me, I have said things which some have construed into insinuations against the character of Mrs. Waldo. In order to do away such impressions, I do hereby testify that in relation to a certain unhappy affair between Mrs. Waldo and myself, she was in no wise guilty.E. A. KITTREDGEAttest, { Christopher Harris, { J. Hutchinson, Jr.Lynn, June 12, 1838.——Dr. Dalton.The young lady charged with being accessory to the murder of Dr. Dalton in Knoxville, Illinois, was tried by virtue of a writ of habeas corpus, before Judge Thomas, in Springfield, on Saturday last, in the court room, and discharged. The circumstances that led to the murder of Dalton, and the appearance of the young, beautiful and interesting prisoner, excited a deep interest on the part of the people in her behalf. We have been informed that Dr. Dalton, some time last winter, called on this young lady and informed her that one of her female acquaintances, in the country, was sick, and was anxious to see her, and said, as he was compelled to visit her friend, he being her physician, he would give her a seat in his sleigh if she wished to go. The doctor being a man of family and good character, she accepted the offer. They went. The doctor, after driving a few miles informed the young lady that her friend was not sick, and then attempted to force a compliance with his desires. With a drawn dagger he threatened her life, unless she would submit to his brutal proposition.Her screams frightened the horses; he sprang out of the sleigh for the purpose of tying them, but they were unmanageable; she left the sleigh and ran some distance through the snow to the nearest house, and thus made her escape. The doctor was arrested and bound over in the sum of $3,000 for his appearance at court. This done, he endeavored to create the impression that the girl did not possess a good character; this caused her brother, it is said, to utter threats against him. And shortly after, Dr. Dalton, while standing opposite to the young lady’s father’s house, was shot in the back from a window. Her brother, Silas A. Rude, was apprehended on suspicion, and is now in custody awaiting his trial. His sister was also arrested, and her case disposed of as above stated.The discharge of the young lady brought forth from spectators, an involuntary shout of joy. But to add to the interest of all these circumstances, a few hours after her release she was united by the band of matrimony to a young gentleman to whom she had been engaged for a year or more.—Illinois Republican——“Weep for Yourselves and your Children.”“We mourn for those who toil— The slave who ploughs the main,Or him who hopeless tills the soil, Beneath the stripe and chain;—For those who in the world’s hard race, O’erwearied and unblest,A host of restless phantoms chase; Why weep for those who rest?

“We mourn for those who sin, Bound in the tempter’s snare;Whom syren pleasure beckons in To prisons of despair:Whose hearts, by whirlwind passions tost, Are wreck’d on folly’s shore;But why in sorrow should we mourn For those who sin no more?

“We mourn for those who weep, Whom stern afflictions bendWith anguish o’er the lowly sleep Of lover, or of friend:By they to whom the iron sway Of pain and grief is o’er,Whose tears our God has wip’d away,— Oh mourn for them no more!”L. H. S.——From the Youth’s Cabinet.Social Intercourse.Perhaps there is no better rule for regulating the social intercourse of young people, than to keep out of mind, as much as possible, the fact of the difference of sex, and maintain chaste, and animated intercourse of mind, upon interesting subjects, that supply material for sprightly conversation. The consciousness of this difference, if kept continually prominent in the mind, produces an impression unfavorable to elevated moral feeling, and strict purity. No amorous conversation or dalliance should be allowed to enter into the social intercourse or amusements of children or youth; nor should the idea of forming matrimonial connections be permitted to float in the mind, on such occasions. Such things tend to debase the moral feelings of youth, and render their social intercourse silly, vapid, and unprofitable. It destroys the very object of that association; and leads to the introduction of amusements, in which the idea of matrimonial alliance is kept constantly before the mind.All particular intimacies, between boys and girls, should be avoided; and no young girl, who wishes to maintain a modest and delicate deportment, should receive particular attentions, beyond what are required by common politeness and ordinary friendship. Such intimacies before the proper age for entering the conjugal state, tend to unpleasant, if not mischievous results. Before the parties are aware of it, they may find themselves under the influence of an attachment, which riper years may prove to be injudicious. They will be impatient of the long intervening years; and this attachment will likely prove a snare to their virtue. Independent of these considerations, it will occupy their minds, and prevent them from making those acquisitions which are indispensible, to fit them for usefulness in life.The sentiment cannot, therefore, be too strongly impressed upon young persons, that every thing of this kind should be banished from their minds, till they arrive at a proper age, and come into suitable circumstances for entering into the marriage relation. Should this principle of action be generally adopted by the young, it would accomplish great things for the cause of purity.——Theological Book-stores.—So many of our booksellers are pleased to style their places of sale. But with what propriety? We see suspended at all their doors, or standing beneath their windows, the large show-bill, “Bulwer’s last novel! Alice, a continuation of Ernest Maltravers.” Accident threw the latter book under our examination, and we expressed our opinion of it boldly and distinctly. We have not examined, not shall we, what professes to be a continuation of this foul production. But neither fear nor favor shall lead us to shrink from bearing our testimony against the inconsistent and mercenary spirit, which will lead respectable booksellers to deal out such corruption in the community as these books contain. We fully believe there is a sufficient Christian influence in this city, to sustain a Christian bookseller in the sale of purely useful books. But whether there is or not, it is better for a man to go into the lion’s den of poverty, than to thrive and fatten upon the destruction of his fellow men. We do not see upon what principles of casuistry, professedly pious men can satisfy their own consciences in selling to others what they will not hesitate to pronounce as necessarily and in a high degree corrupting and injurious. At any rate, as guardians in a measure of the public welfare, and advocates for the good of man, we shall not waver in our uncompromising testimony against novel-selling and well and novel-reading, in all its branches.—Epis. Rec.——“He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.” “Correct thy son and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall delight unto thy soul.” Bible.——“Oh, what a glory doth the world put on,For him that with a fervent heart goes forth,Under the bright and glorious sky, and looksOn duties well perform’d, and days well spent:For him the wind, aye, and the yellow leaves,Shall have a voice and give him eloquent teachings.”New Tracts.The F. M. R. Society have just published two new Tracts; the titles are—“Run, speak to that Young Woman,” containing 8 pages; the other—“Run, speak to that Young Man,” containing 4 pages; price of each is 50 cents per hundred. These tracts are very suitable to be distributed among the young of both sexes, as an introduction to the subject of Moral Reform. We hope our friends from abroad will not fail to embrace every opportunity in sending for a supply of them immediately.——Advocated for Gratuitous Distribution.Our friends in the city who may visit the country during the summer months are invited to call at our office, 149 Nassau-street, and we will furnish them gratuitously with papers and tracts to circulate among their friends. Much good may be done in this way. Try it.——New Agents.Mr. Chauncey Rowe and Miss Nancy Whitman, Farmington, Conn.; Elizur M. Leonard, Mission Institute, Quincy, Adams co., Ill.——Life Members.Received from a friend in Saco, Me., to constitute Mrs. Mary Nourse, of Bangor, a life member, $10; from F. M. R. Soc., Putney, Vt., to constitute Mrs. Harriet A. Foster a life member, $10; from Mrs. Elizabeth Camp, of Northville, Litchfield co., Conn,. to constitute herself a life member, $10.——Acknowledgements.From Mrs B. Swan, Saline, Mich. for a school in the Sandwich Islands, 12 1/2 cts.; from a lady in N.Y. per Mrs Mack, of Rochester, N.Y., 25 cts.; from F. M. R. Soc., in Woonsockett Falls, R. I., $5; from Mrs Knox, Hartford, Ct., $1; from a Friend to the cause in Blandford, Mass., a gold pin; from Mrs F. M. Burchard, city of N.Y., $2; from F. M. R. Soc., in Perry Centre, N. Y. $1; from Mrs Dr. Post, Chicago, Ill., $3; from a lady in Wendell, Mass., a string of gold beads, value from 3 to 4 dollars; from the Union Maternal Association of Otsego, N. Y., per Mrs Irene North, $5.For Mrs. McDowell.Received from Miss Jerusha Treat, Hartford, Ct., $1; from Mrs. Dr. Post, Chicago, Ill., $2; from George Alexander, Ann Arbor, Mich., $1.——Letters received from June 23d to July 6th, inclusive.Mrs A Bishop, B M Dewey, H Bartlett P M, S Stevens, Mrs A N Burritt, W W Pratt P M, Emeline Barnes, W Z Brinkerhoff, S. L. Goodall, M S Burchard, Anna T. Robinson, W J Chapin P. M, W B Collar, Mrs N. P Willis, A B Childs P. M., Miss A Larned, Harriet Hunt, Elizur M. Leonard, Miss Mary Bull, W S Boyd, S N Tufts, Mrs J Voorhess, Rev H K Stinson, Sarah Young, Mrs A Foster, F Bates P M, J R Eldredge, C O Shephard P M, Miss Penniman, E Vernon, Mrs Wright, S Sherwood, E R Bascom P M, O N Chapin, S Pierce P M, T Skelton P M, A Berry, J Lathrop P M, Mrs L F Hopkins, Mrs Dr Post, Miss Whitney, Mrs E Chapman, A Wooster P M, Charles Thayer P M, H L Hawley P M, W W Chandler P M, Relief Delano.Bibliography

Boylan, Anne. “Timid Girls, Venerable Widows, and Dignified Matron: Life Cycle Patterns Among Organized Women in New York and Boston, 1797-1840.” American Quarterly 38 (1986): 779-797.

“Timid Girls, Venerable Widows, and Dignified Matron: Life Cycle Patterns Among Organized Women in New York and Boston, 1797-1840,” by Anne Boylan is an excellent article on the makeup of women’s groups in the specified time period. The article provides tables of ages and marital status of different women’s groups so comparisons are easy. Boylan examines the different patterns to show the status quo of members that distinguished each group. “The Power of Women’s Networks: A Case Study of Female Moral Reform in Antebellum America,” by Mary Ryan looks at the feminist implications of any women’s group. Ryan also discusses the conflicting beliefs with in female moral reform: the need for equality between the sexes and the celebrating of the domestic female. Bertha-Monica Stearns’s article “Reform Periodicals and Female Reformers, 1830-1860” is a helpful article on the history of female reformers. Stearns provides a wealth of information about The Advocate of Moral Reform as well as many of its contemporaries.

☞ “The Advocate of Moral Reform 4.14 (July 16, 1838).” Copyright 2007 Kathlene Verib. This edition was prepared to fulfill an assignment offered in “Thoreau, Emerson, and Their Circle,” an undergraduate- and graduate-level seminar taught by Jon Miller at The University of Akron in the spring of 2006. Please note, this is not peer-reviewed work. License: You are free and encouraged to copy and distribute this work under the following conditions: 1. You may not use this work for commercial purposes. 2. Any reuse or distribution must preserve this copyright, license, version, and citation information. 3. Any of these conditions can be waived if you get permission from the copyright holder. This document is, was created with, or contains the full text of a PDF file published on a website, Materials of American Literature, that is maintained by Jon Miller, Associate Professor of English at The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio, USA. Please visit jonmiller.org for possible corrections or improvements, which may appear in later printings of this file. Suggested citation: “The Advocate of Moral Reform 4.14 (July 16, 1838).” Ed. Kathlene Verib. Materials of American Literature no. 11 (2007) date accessed <http://www.jonmiller.org/PDF/MAL11AdvocateMoralReform18380716.pdf>.5 4 3 2